and his ally the _earth-beast_ in final conflict near Aleppo. Mohammed himself was said to have retreated with Abu Bekr to a cave, where they lay concealed behind a spider’s web, as the Scottish tale says Bruce did before his decisive appearance and victory. The influence of these myths may be seen even during the lifetime of Frederick II., when the extravagant hopes of his followers led them to use language regarding the Emperor which was applicable only to the Deity. We may see in this an anticipation by hyperbole of the apotheosis granted him by the Ghibellines after his death.[289] As for Michael Scot himself, it was a very natural progress of the popular imagination which made him play Merlin to the Emperor’s Arthur. That this place in the growing legend was actually his, seems probable from the fact that, in the romance of _Maugis_ (or Merlin) _and Vivien_,[290] the hero is made to study his art in Toledo, where Scot had notoriously been. Mysterious caves, the refuge of slumbering heroes, were spoken of as existing both near that city and Salamanca. It may be that we here touch on the origin of Scot’s legendary connection with the Eildon Hills in his own borderland. That the Scottish Avalon lay beneath these there can be little doubt. Sir Walter Scott repeats a traditional tale which reminds us unmistakably of those given by Gervase of Tilbury and Caesar von Heisterbach. A countryman of Roxburghshire had sold a horse to an old man of the hills. Payment was appointed to be made at midnight, on Eildon, at a place called the _Lucken Howe_. When the coin, which was of ancient and forgotten mintage, had been duly handed over, the old man invited the other to view his dwelling. They passed within the hill, where the stranger was surprised to see ranks of steeds ready caparisoned: a silent cavalier in armour standing by the side of each. ‘These will wake for Shirramuir,’ said his guide. In the cave hung a sword and a horn. ‘The sound of this horn,’ the old man told him, ‘will break the spell of their slumber.’ The countryman caught it to his lips and blew a blast. The horses neighed, pawed the ground, and shook their trappings, while the knights stirred, and the place rang again with the sound of their arms. He dropped the horn in fear, and heard a voice which said: ‘Woe to him who does not unsheathe the sword ere he has blown the horn.’ He was then carried back again to the hillside, and could never more discover the entrance to that subterranean realm.[291]